


the promised land

by skatzaa



Category: Original Work
Genre: Anchorites, Chocolate Box Treat, F/F, Pre-Relationship, Religion, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:54:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22561333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/pseuds/skatzaa
Summary: On a colony ship, deep in the farthest reaches of space, one friend visits another.
Relationships: Anchoress/Woman Outsider Her Cell, Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Comments: 11
Kudos: 16
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	the promised land

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thereinafter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereinafter/gifts).



Kaze knelt in the alcove, body angled so that anyone passing by in the corridor wouldn’t be able to see her face. She pulled the wrapped parcel from her pocket and, with a glance over her shoulder, reached to place it in the windowsill.  


“Aedar?” she asked, voice pitched low. It was night-cycle, when most colonists would be asleep or in the middle of their shifts, but that didn’t preclude caution. “I’ve brought you more fruit.”

She kept her eyes carefully averted from the small opening in the cell wall that served as Aedar’s one window to the rest of the ship. It probably didn’t allow Aedar much of a view—just the patched metal of the corridor wall—but it didn’t matter. By ship law, the anchorites were not allowed to look out, and no one else was allowed to look in.

There was a slight shuffling on the other side of the wall, and then Aedar’s voice floated out to her, as soft and dreamlike as always. “Kaze. Has it already been a ten-day?”

Kaze’s heart squeezed. She knew it was hard for Aedar to track time; even when awake, the cycle changes slipped through her mind uncomprehended. But this…

“It’s been two,” Kaze told her. 

_ “Two ten-days?” _

Kaze inhaled sharply and looked over her shoulder again. But Aedar’s raised voice hadn’t attracted any unwanted attention. 

Not that Kaze, or anyone else, was  _ forbidden _ from visiting the anchorites. But if someone took notice of just how often Kaze was here to see Aedar specifically, and how often she brought highly sought after foods, it could spell trouble for both of them. And Aedar didn’t need anymore trouble. 

“I came last rest day,” Kaze said, “but you didn’t answer me.”

The  _ I couldn’t check to make sure you were even still alive _ went unsaid. 

“I…” Aedar’s voice was faint, faint enough that Kaze had to lean forward to hear her. But no other words followed. 

Kaze glanced toward the window, curiosity overtaking sense. The fruit was missing, though the wrapping remained. Aedar’s terminal, from what she had told Kaze, was on the opposite side of the cell, but the uplink cables that connected to her wrist implants were long enough for her to reach the window without pain.

“Are you alright?” Kaze asked, eyes still trained on the window. “There’s been rumors…”

“I’ve been communing with The Nav more often,” Aedar said, hushed and reverent. “She has told me many things, things that I would not have dared to believe if they had not come from Her.”

Kaze dared to shift closer to the window. “Aedar?”

“Our journey is ending,” Aedar continued, as though she had not heard Kaze. Kaze’s stomach sank; she knew that rapturous tone well, knew when Aedar was becoming lost in her uplinks, as close to The Nav as any of them would be. The prospect was almost appealing, until she experienced it like this; here, stuck on the other side of a three inch thick wall, it was only revolting. “Our exile will soon be over.”

Kaze’s breath caught. 

Could it possibly be true? Could The Nav have found a planet that fulfilled all the colony’s needs? Could they, when it came down to it, abandon the ship that had housed the colony since the beginning of their history? Leave the ship for an open sky and stars above, rather than all around?

“That’s what The Nav told you?” Kaze asked. But there was a more important question, and she didn’t wait for an answer that might not come. “Did She say what will become of you?”

“I will be one of Her Chosen Few, as I always have been.”

Kaze, still on her knees, shuffled closer to the window. This time, she didn’t bother to check for onlookers. She dared, disbelieving of her own bravery, to bring up one hand and rest it on the edge of the windowsill. Her fingers were not even to the midway point of the three inch stretch, but still: if she was seen, she would be punished. Badly.

“Yes,” she said, holding deathly still, “but will you be  _ free?” _

Silence—for so long that Kaze feared she had lost Aedar to her uplinks or, worse, had misstepped somehow. And then:

Cool skin against hers; the whisper of sensation as fingertips brushed over her first knuckles. It was the first time she had ever touched Aedar, and it was over almost as soon as it began.

Kaze drew her hand back as Aedar whispered to her, “Yes. The Nav will cleave open my cell, and I will be allowed to rejoin our people as one of Her Chosen.”

Tears stung her eyes, and she clenched her hands into fists to keep from reaching out once more. Perhaps it was selfish, but she hoped that when Aedar said _our people,_ she meant _Kaze._ Her voice was barely more than a breath as she said, “Truly?”

“Yes.” Aedar sounded farther away now, like she had retreated deeper into her cell. “It will be as The Nav said. Soon, now, Kaze.”

She knew a dismissal when she heard one, but Kaze remained crouched as she was for several long minutes, head braced against forearms braced against cold metal. Her muscles trembled as she tried to gather her wits enough to leave. But all she could think was:  _ Free. Soon, we will be together and free.  _


End file.
